The volume of rail freight carried in Canada totalledย 27.2ย million tonnes in February, downย 0.2% from Februaryย 2017, according to the latest release from Statistics Canada April 25.
Railway carloadings, total tonnage shipped
Freight originating in Canada decreasedย 1.8% from the same month last year toย 24.2ย million tonnes. Non-intermodal freight fell byย 2.1% toย 264,000ย carloads in February. The amount of freight loaded into these cars fellย 2.3% from Februaryย 2017ย toย 21.4ย million tonnes.
In February, the commodities with the largest increase in tonnage compared with Februaryย 2017ย were iron ores and concentrates (+522ย 000ย tonnes or +12.9%), potash (+198ย 000ย tonnes or +13.2%), gypsum (+88ย 000ย tonnes or +215.7%), other metallic ores and concentrates (+84ย 000ย tonnes or +35.1%) and alumina (+79ย 000ย tonnes or +29.9%).
Conversely, tonnages declined over the same period for colza seeds (canola) (-289ย 000ย tonnes or -33.3%), wheat (-260,000ย tonnes or -17.6%) and fresh, chilled or dried vegetables (-170ย 000ย tonnes or -42.7%).
Intermodal freight loadings roseย 5.0% from Februaryย 2017ย toย 187,000ย units in Februaryย 2018. The gain stemmed from aย 5.0% increase in containers-on-flat-cars, and anย 8.3% increase for trailers-on-flat-cars. In terms of weight, intermodal traffic increasedย 2.3% toย 2.7ย million tonnes.
Freight traffic received from the United States roseย 14.3% toย 3.0ย million tonnes as a result of increases in both non-intermodal (+15.0%) and intermodal (+5.6%) freight.